RAT can identify 79% of those with high viral loads

Rapid antigen testing can identify 79% of those with high viral loads, a study by V.R. Francis and M.A.R.V. Muthugala, published in the Sri Lankan Journal of Infectious Diseases, states. However, the overall sensitivity of the test was 58.5%.

“As it is a point-of-care test, it has several advantages over the real-time PCR assays in terms of earlier results, ease of use and in usability in field testing. Therefore, it can be used effectively to filter out the infectious individuals in high-risk communities to interrupt the chain of transmission,” the researchers, attached to the Faculty of Health-Care Sciences, Eastern University and the National Hospital, Kandy, said.

The researchers said that they used a commonly used rapid antigen test kit from the Republic of Korea, supplied by the Ministry of health, Sri Lanka for COVID -19 testing.

“We tested 40 known COVID-19 positive asymptomatic persons and 143 asymptomatic vendors working in the congested Akkaraipattu public market considered a high-risk location,” they said.

The rapid antigen test kit however failed to detect 20.6% of COVID-19 patients with relatively low viral loads and there were no false positive results with the rapid antigen test kit, the study found. (RK)